June 26, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMA has bet the economy on his program to grow the government and finance it with a more progressive tax system. It's hard to miss the irony that he's pitching this change in Washington even as the same governance model is imploding in three of the largest American states where it has been dominant for years -- California, New Jersey and New York.

HOUSTON MAYOR Bill White was informed nearly a year and a half ago that a nonprofit arm of the Houston Airport System was heavily involved in building and running airport facilities in several other countries, records show.

June 24, 2009

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal today published a good analysis of how hard it is to estimate the number of uninsured people in America: Carl Bialik, "The Unhealthy Accounting of Uninsured Americans."

The Census Bureau estimates that the number of uninsured amounts to 45.7 million people. [Unca D: Note: It's "people," not (as the Chronicle would have it) "Americans."] But the agency might be overcounting by millions due to faulty assumptions. Another problem: That 45.7 million figure includes undocumented immigrants, even though they aren't likely to be covered under new laws. [Unca: The number also includes millions of documented immigrants.]

NOW BACK to our regularly scheduled rant:

As I have explained four times before, the numbers in each of the following statements from Houston Chronicle editorial are demonstrably false. The Chronicle knows the numbers are false, but repeats them anyway. What does that tell you?